OPPOSITION POLITICIANS have called on Minister for Health Mary Harney to investigate the use of out-of-date scanners at hospitals in the northeast.
Consultant obstetrician Dr Seosamh Ó Coigligh warned the Health Service Executive (HSE) in March that the scanners required urgent replacement, following the review of the scanning equipment in the aftermath of a miscarriage misdiagnosis at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Louth Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd said yesterday that Ms Harney should immediately investigate this “appalling situation” and accused the HSE of engaging in a cover-up.
He was horrified, he said, to learn that up to five ultrasound scanners in the region were either out of date or faulty. It looked as if the HSE had ignored Dr Ó Coigligh’s warning.
“This is an outrage,” said Mr O’Dowd, adding it was clear the HSE did not want “this scandal” to emerge in public.
“It would be nice to think the HSE was as concerned about the welfare of its patients as it is about protecting its own reputation,” he said.
Labour spokeswoman on health Jan O’Sullivan said Ms Harney should take “a hands-on” approach to the issue. “She must ensure that the HSE takes immediate action to ensure that all such unreliable equipment is replaced,” Ms O’Sullivan added.
She said it almost defied belief that, three months after the disclosure that a number of pregnant women had been wrongly told their unborn babies were dead, out-of-date scanners were still used at hospitals in the northeast.
“The public was rightly shocked at the disclosure in June last that a number of women had been put through this horrendous ordeal and the role that old and unreliable scanners had played in the misdiagnosis.
“It now emerges that, months before these disclosures, a consultant obstetrician had warned that a number of scanners in the northeastern region required urgent replacement,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
